1. Field of the Invention
This description relates generally to detection of gas leakage, and more specifically detection of gas leakage using mid-infrared laser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Natural gas consumption in the U.S. is expected to increase rapidly. However, at the same time, gas delivery infrastructure is aging. Accordingly, reliable and timely detection of natural gas leakage is critical to ensure the gas delivery infrastructure's reliability. Conventional non-optical methods that detect natural gas leakage are based on various mechanisms such as manual inspection, acoustic monitoring; gas sampling; soil monitoring; flow monitoring; and software based dynamic modeling. However, these detection methods are often unreliable, inefficient, and expensive.